Satellite imagery: What are we looking at? Mix of current and dated material (see imagery date in lower left); it's only as good as "they" let you have (e.g., contrast One Observatory Circle vs. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW)

Layers -- my recommendation is to turn OFF as much as possible. But I do like leaving 3-D buildings on...sometimes turns up fun surprises (for example, Amsterdam!).

File > Open to load a .kml or a .kmz. For our demo, we'll use this file that I created for TLT 406. It's interesting b/c it has points, lines, associated images, etc.

Interface

Sidebar vs. display area vs. toolbar

Sidebar on and off

Navigation tools on, off, or auto

Sidebar fields: Search, My Places, Layers

Navigate

Search box, or

Double-click on an item in a list (Search or My Places)

Double-click on any point on the globe to go there.

Navigation tools: Tilt/pan, move NSEW, zoom in/out

Inspect

Single-click to open up info box.

Right-click and select "Properties" or "Get Info" -- gives more access to point/line/polygon data (e.g., lat/lon, URL of any imported images). More importantly, you can EDIT items in this mode (see below)

Query

Actually, not much we can do here beyond typing in search terms.

Some of the other tools are handy--use the ruler to measure, use the time-of-day feature to look at shadows, historical imagery to see earlier images, and the newest Easter egg that I've found: Show elevation profile (draw a path and right-click it!)

(And of course Google Earth is not just Earth -- View > Explore gives you options of Earth, Sky, Moon, and Mars!)

Edit

Add something new: either

Search for it and then drag it into My Places and work on it, or

Click on Add Placemark, Add Polygon, or Add Path.

Editing something once it's been created: Open up Properties (or Info) and modify.

Save

For our purposes: Right-click the item, folder, or file name and "Save Place As"

You can also

Save out snapshopts

Record a tour

Move into Google Maps

AEJEE - Note that this runs on Java, so it requires a Java Runtime Environment...and some patience.

Load

All client-side data. We'll start by loading a blend of demo, downloaded, and self-generated data.

Loading demo data: File > open > us_hd.axl. (In case you need to browse to this: The file path is ESRI\AEJEE\Data.) What you're looking at: spreadsheets rendered visually. But we'll get to this in "Inspect"

Interface

Similar to Google Earth: tools across the top, left-hand layers, main area = display

Note importance of layers

Turn on/off

Re-order (e.g., pull cities layer down in the stack)

Navigate: Move about the map in at least three ways

Drag the map around

Zoom in/out

Zoom to full extent or active layer

BEWARE getting zoomed in or out too far -- correct using "Zoom to" tools (select layer and then zoom to it)

Code cities by POP_CLASS, all one size, use color to differentiate ranks (e.g., red for highest rank -- largest cities -- and green for lowest rank)

Right-click states and select 'Properties'

Bring up 'Labels' tab and select STATE_NAME

Modify data -- all done in spreadsheet editor

Add new fields to existing layers: add a column, don't make the new column name more than 10 characters! Save as tab-delimited text

Creating new layers: MUST edit outside of AEJEE, bring it in.

Can add point data fairly easily -- just give it a lat and a lon

Adding lines or polygons is much trickier. Take a look at the demo files of 10grid_hd.axl and 10gridpn_hd.axl to get a sense of this.

Save

Saves out as ArcXML (axl) files; viewable in Arc products.

HOWEVER: Note that each project file is pretty tiny (just a couple kilobytes) -- they're referencing the REAL data sources, down in the data folders. So if you're trying to move data around, move both the project file and the data sources.

Transitioning from AEJEE to My World: Just to demo the limitations of AEJEE, let's load some non-demo data

Here are files with the streets for our immediate surroundings. Note that part of the challenge in using AEJEE is just file management....

Download them all to the same folder / location, make sure you know how to find them.

Hit the "Add data..." button (between 'Print' and 'Remove layer') and browse to where you stored the data; you should see the .shp files there. Select them and they will become new layers.

And here is our scaffolded geocache data as tab-delimited text. Save this file to your machine, then do View > Add Event Theme. Browse to where the .txt file is, select it. BE SURE to specify 'lon' as the X Field, and 'lat' as the Y field.

Here, everything is built in: The "Construct" tab is where you assemble your data. You can add your own custom data, but for the moment, just

Set the Library to "United States"

Pull the following to the "Layer List" column: U.S. States, Counties, Rivers, Major Highways -- whatever you like.

To get our geocache data: Do File > Import Layer From File. Browse to wherever you stored the file, and note that this program is a little smarter -- given lat and lon, it recognizes them automatically.

Interface: You have the usual menus, but the tabs are the key

"Construct" is where you assemble the dataset

"Visualize" gets you more screen space and lets you see what's in each data layer. This is also a good place to re-order / re-stack layers, adjust colors, icons, turn layers on/off, etc. (You can do these in "Construct" as well, but you'll have a more cramped screen.)

"Analyze" is where you run your queries.

"Edit" lets you change your data set or add new layers from your own data.

Navigation:

The same tools and concepts apply: drag, zoom, zoom-to-active

Important new tool: Step forward / step back among views

Inspect: You still have an Inspect tool, but you can do a lot more browsing using the records fields to the right.

Query

This is actually pretty different: The Analyze tab is where you do this, and it's all split out by function. Note that this tool lets you do a lot of math (calculations, graphs) as well as maps. For example: Figure out a series of steps to see if the %age of older persons really is higher in Florida, Arizona, etc.

Another bit of added value: You can save your queries / analyses as new layers. For students, this is VERY handy.

Edit

Obviously, the Edit tab is the place to be. Double-click on a layer and you can see the spreadsheet, add new records (entries) or new fields (characteristics to existing records).

Time permitting: Example of adding new data to an existing data file: I've done a little work moving some Holocaust data into GIS. Sources are these two graphs from Yad Vashem: 1, 2.

You can make an entirely new layer (points, lines, polygons, etc.) by clicking the "Create A New, Empty Layer" button (the sheet-of-paper looking thing)

Save

The important thing here is to do "Save Project As..." to preserve (a) the integrity of the original data, and (b) whatever changes / analyses you've made.

Complete the reading. Note that there's nothing new to add – just do the follow-up readings from our last meeting on Tues, 29 May

Complete and turn in your Google Earth proof-of-concept. This is basically just one or more Google Earth files that gets started on your concept, plus a note (either in the CourseSite upload's comment box or in an accompanying text document – I don't care) on what you intend to do to finish things off.

During class (ppt)

4:00-4:30 = OPTIONAL PRESENTATION. Topic = Finding data

A GIS is only as good as its data

Data structure: The map (.shp), the fields (.dbf), and the glue between the two (an index of map and fields: shx)

Data-searching

It's a mess. Case-in-point: Federal Geographic Data Committee. Aim = "'one-stop'access to all registered geographic information and related online access services within the United States." Their portal (gos2.geodata.gov as of this writing) doesn't load. Best case scenario = hit-or-miss

US = most data-rich environment; Europe also pretty good. China = black hole. Other parts of the world: Data exists for some topics, depending on if a govt or NGO has taken an interest.

First, know what's in the built-in libraries for My World, AEJEE, ArcGIS, etc. In general, you can get a map from any one system into another

Things to know about going in: Map projections. Unfortunately, I don't have any slick suggestions with this. Just pay attention to the documentation, play around with it to get it to work. Or else cross your fingers and hope you get lucky.

Regional agencies: http://delicious.com/tchammond/dataSources+regional More idiosyncratic in terms of focus and datasets available. State-level usually has at least one agency looking at environmental issues. If someone gets a good lead on additional state-level data, let me know so I can add to the list!!

Again, pay attention to what's in the built-in data for your software.

Things to know about going in: You might get the data in a spreadsheet, not a GIS file. You then play with it to get it into your GIS, but that's a second step. First, just get your hands on it; worry about how to import and display it later.

Find other someone's Google Earth coverage and re-construct into GIS. It's generally a tremendous pain to move from GE to GIS, but it can be done. For example: I took this file (http://www.cwoodcock.com/Civil_War_by_Campaign.kmz) and with a LOT of editing in Excel got it into ArcMap.

Housekeeping – questions / concerns about Google Earth assignment? How are we looking for the GIS assignment?

Conceptual work

Inquiry

What are we talking about? Let's try going outside to do an activity with stomp rockets. You'll need: Paper, pencil, GPS unit, and a sense of competition.

Return inside & de-brief: How was that inquiry? What were the key features?

Why is inquiry learning so essential to working with geospatial tools?

An inside-the-classroom experience of inquiry: working with the Great Migration file from Edelson, Smith, & Brown. You'll need the project file (uic.edu/educ/bctpi/historyGIS/greatmigration/GreatMigrationV42.m3vz ); note that if you just click on the link, your browser may try to display the file. Instead, you should download it, open My World, then load the data from inside My World with File > Open.

Your task: Either support or revise the following definition: "Great Migration, n. the large-scale movement of African Americans from the South to Northern cities in the early 20th century."

Use the dataset to test the definition

Decide to support it or revise it.

Generate one or more screenshots to support your position

Post a statement in your WTL thread giving your final position. Include your screenshot(s) as attachments.

Great Migration de-brief, pivot to the importance of scaffolding

Scaffolding

What are we talking about? Zone of Proximal Development, process of moving students toward independent application of skills, internalization of mental models, etc.

Why is scaffolding such a big deal with geospatial tools?

Scaffolding in action: Trees, cars, and carbon activity. Identify the scaffolds being used